• University of York

Enterprise: Everybody’s Business

Gain essential enterprise skills to help turn your idea into a viable startup business that reaches your target customers.

1,206 enrolled on this course

Laptops viewed from above - Unsplash/Marvin Meyer

Enterprise: Everybody’s Business

1,206 enrolled on this course

  • 3 weeks

  • 4 hours per week

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Open level

Find out more about how to join this course

Learn how to find good startup ideas

Enterprising people are valuable additions to any workforce. Using a range of skills from empathy to problem-solving, enterprise knowledge can help develop an existing career, help you start a ‘side hustle’, or create a full time startup where you can develop a product or service you’ve always thought about.

On this three-week course, you’ll learn what makes a good startup idea as you discover key techniques to identify and test ideas for your business.

You’ll also learn how to assess and measure the potential customer appetite for your idea. With this knowledge, you’ll understand how to get to know your customer and judge the market to ensure your service or product idea is viable.

Discover the best practices and design thinking processes from entrepreneurs

You’ll cover activities and design thinking processes that the best founders and entrepreneurs use to test their ideas to find out whether they are likely to succeed.

Next, you’ll learn how to work with other people and how to make money or a positive social impact with your business.

Perfect your elevator pitch

As you start to develop a marketing plan, you’ll discover how to create a successful pitch to ensure you make your mark.

You’ll also learn how to protect your ideas with intellectual property (IP) protection before understanding how to take the next steps to success with a growth strategy.

Learn from the experts at the University of York

Throughout the course, you’ll be guided by the enterprise team at the University of York. With their expertise, you’ll finish the course with the skills and knowledge to make your startup idea a reality.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 9 seconds Starting a business is now cheaper and easier than ever before. Digital technologies allow us to connect with customers across the globe or down the same street and give all of us the chance to produce high quality promotions and marketing materials. However, to properly succeed a clear understanding of a customer group and how a business can serve their needs is still required. We use the experiences of our student and graduate entrepreneurs to illustrate how research and planning can make a real difference to your chances of success and show that an individual’s background is no obstacle to starting a successful business.

Skip to 0 minutes and 46 seconds Combining elements of creativity, research and planning, this is a short course for anyone interested in entrepreneurship as a career destination; particularly those considering coming to university as a stepping stone to gaining those skills and support. Join us on this course from the University of York as we explore how to put together a compelling and viable business proposition.

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    Looking and Listening

    • Introduction

      An introduction to the course objectives and a chance to think about how you will learn. There is a welcome video from the lead educator and also an opportunity to introduce yourself and meet fellow learners for the first time.

    • What makes a good startup idea?

      Where do ideas come from? How do we know when we have a 'good' idea? And how can we assess those ideas without bias?

    • Testing ideas and applying values

      Now we should be wondering 'how do I know if my idea is any good'. Many people think that if the idea was a good one, someone would have done it already. How do we test that assumption, and add our personal touch to the idea?

    • Know your customer

      Most startups fail because they failed to find a product/market fit. Speak to your customers now and design your product or service around what they want, not what you think they do.

    • Closing thoughts

      A summary of Week 1's learning

  • Week 2

    Developing and organising

    • Introduction

      Welcome to the second week of the course

    • Pitching

      An essential part of your business is being able to explain what it does, who it helps and why it's the best... Even before you start doing anything!

    • Company context

      The more we know about our wider context the better. Let's look at our competitors, key relationships and what makes us stand out as the best.

    • Closing thoughts for Week 2

      A final quick quiz and a chance to reflect on the learning from this week

  • Week 3

    Launching and growing

    • Introduction

      Welcome to Week 3 which begins with another short film

    • Protecting your ideas

      Learn about intellectual property and getting a patent

    • Finances

      Learn to manage cash flow and how to register a business, register for self employment and accounting

    • Prototyping

      Building your first Minimum Viable Product, and how to choose which elements to test

    • Marketing

      When to market your product or service, and how

    • Closing thoughts and final test

      Are you ready for the final test and a last chance to reflect?

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Identify and test ideas
  • Assess and measure potential customer appetite
  • Model how to fit key partners and beneficiaries together
  • Develop sales projections and costs
  • Explore how to build growth strategy

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone interested in developing their understanding of enterprise, from employability skills to freelancing and startup.

It will be particularly useful if you are starting higher education and you want to understand the opportunities for entrepreneurship that university can offer.

Who will you learn with?

Hello! I'm Sam, the Student Enterprise Manager at the University of York.

I hope you find our courses useful and if you have any questions, give me a shout!

I am Head of Student Opportunities with the Careers and Placements Service at the University of York with responsibility for the support we offer student and graduate entrepreneurs.

Who developed the course?

University of York

The University of York combines the pursuit of academic excellence with a culture of inclusion, which encourages everyone – from a variety of backgrounds – to achieve their best.

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Ways to learn

Choose the best way to learn for you!

Subscribe & save

$349.99 for one year

Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Buy this course

$109/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Limited access

Free

Sample the course materials

  • Access expires 16 May 2024

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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